Foes fighting planned resort

Environmentalists, village worry about coral reef in Mexico.

By Dudley Althaus, HOUSTON CHRONICLE

Updated 1:27 am, Monday, November 28, 2011

Photo: Keith Dannemiller

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Cabo Pulmo, Baja California Sur, Mexico, one-time fishing village on the Sea of Cortez, now sustained by ecotourism, is battling efforts to build a Cancun-style mega-resort a short distance up the coast from a unique coral reef, protected by the community. A view of the beachfront at Cabo Pulmo early in the morning.

Cabo Pulmo, Baja California Sur, Mexico, one-time fishing village on the Sea of Cortez, now sustained by ecotourism, is battling efforts to build a Cancun-style mega-resort a short distance up the coast from a

CABO PULMO, Mexico — Another showdown in the decades-long struggle for the soul of this nation's tourist-magnet coastlines is flaring in this tiny seaside village near the tip of the Baja Peninsula.

Villagers and an international coalition of environmentalists are taking on Spanish developers of a mammoth resort planned for the edge of a fragile coral reef off Cabo Pulmo, an hour's drive north of the sun-and-rum mecca of Los Cabos.

Ecologists say the reef, the only one of its kind in the Sea of Cortes, is a crucial fisheries breeding ground that draws scientists and recreational divers from around the world.

Pollution from the planned Cabo Cortes resort, on the coast a few miles to the north, would quickly destroy the reef and its sea life, they say.

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The developers argue that Cabo Cortes — where they envision a 490-berth marina and the parched desert blooming with golf courses surrounded by some 30,000 bedrooms in hotels, condominiums and villas — will bring eco-friendly jobs and tourist dollars to a backwater in need of both.

While financiers usually prevailed in past such skirmishes, this time the fish might have a chance.

“Once lost, we won't be able to recover this,” dive master Enrique “Kiki” Castro, 41, a member of Cabo Pulmo's dominant family, recently told a visiting delegation from the United Nations and other international organizations investigating the impact.

“It's best to save this now,” he said. “Because there will be no going back.”

Mexican officials, who approved Cabo Cortes four years ago, might be reconsidering. And the financially strapped developer, Hansa Urbana, has lost control of the project to its lender, which in turn has been taken over by Spain's central bank.

No one knows what a new owner of the project can or will do with it. So opponents are pouring the pressure on President Felipe Calderón, who prides himself on environmental sensibilities.

Sergio Stabansky, a Cabo Cortes spokesman, said planners agree that Cabo Pulmo should be protected, adding, “We are the most interested in seeing that. Because it's not just the heritage of the Castro family, it's a heritage of all Mexicans.”

Adding to the pressure, Mexico's largest TV network, Televisa, last week broadcast a series on Cabo Pulmo overwhelmingly sympathetic to the environmentalists' argument.

“In the coming year or two, we are going to see all kinds of changes,” said biologist Exequiel Ezcurra, a former president of Mexico's National Institute of Ecology who is among Cabo Cortes' opponents. “Historically in Mexico, when attention turns elsewhere, these kinds of rogue projects are approved.”

Cabo Pulmo's Castro family descends from the fisherman and pearl diver who first settled here a century ago. They share their village with scores of Americans and Canadians, many retirees, who have built comfortable bungalows along the shore and the surrounding desert.

With Cabo Pulmo's fishing grounds badly depleted, marine biologists persuaded the Castros and the Mexican government to protect the reef, leading to its designation in the mid-1990s as a national park where fishing is banned. Biologists say the fish stocks have grown fivefold since the beginning of the century.

Having given up decades of commercial fishing, the Castros and other villagers now earn a good living providing diving and snorkeling tours. There are several small hotels and restaurants in Cabo Pulmo and a handful of others along the nearby coast. Scuba loving tourists make day trips from Los Cabos.

Cabo Pulmo's dozen dive sites are far fewer than those of some Caribbean reefs. But fans say the quantity and diversity of the fish — sharks, dorado and grouper, as well as jacks in schools thousands strong — astound.

“It has brought us a quality of life,” said Judith Castro, 38, the family's foremost environmental activist. “This is an area for tourists who like to be in contact with nature and with original communities.”

Lighted by solar power and free of cellphone signals, the village retains a quiet, easy-going vibe that other beach communities lost long ago.

“Everyone that is here is really different,” said Cremin Huxley, 67, a sea-loving South Dakotan who first visited in the 1980s and has lived here full time for 15 years. “You have to be a little bit on the pioneer side.”